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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">the us push on ukraine to join nato
when the russian fleet is at sevastopol(sp) was bound to end like
this. what else could russia do? <br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">"May this be the worst day of your life".
Old Irish blessing.</pre>
On 3/7/2014 7:22 AM, David Johnson wrote:<br>
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<h2 class="entry-title"><font size="3">Another
perspective on the Ukraine, from a friend of mine in
Oakland Ca.</font></h2>
<div class="entry-title">David J.</div>
<div class="entry-title"> </div>
<h2 class="entry-title"> </h2>
<h2 class="entry-title"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/"
rel="bookmark">Ukraine: “The sins of the fathers…”
and beyond</a></h2>
<div class="entry-meta"><span class="meta-prep
meta-prep-author">Posted on</span> <a
moz-do-not-send="true" title="5:16 am"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/"
rel="bookmark"><span class="entry-date">March 7,
2014</span></a> <span class="by-author"><span
class="sep">by</span> <span class="author vcard"><a
moz-do-not-send="true" class="url fn n"
title="View all posts by oaklandsocialist"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/author/oaklandsocialist/"
rel="author">oaklandsocialist</a></span> </span></div>
<div class="entry-content">
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/protests.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1005" alt="protests"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.2&filename=protests.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p align="center"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><b>by John Reimann</b></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left;" align="center"> <span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>“The
sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the
sons.”</i></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">You don’t have to believe in the
Christian Bible to see this at work in the current
crisis in Ukraine. It’s not all that is at work,
but it certainly is part of it. In addition, we
see the economic crisis of capitalism, the general
lack of a truly independent workers’ movement on a
global scale, and the weakening of US capitalism
as the dominant force in the world, leaving an
increasingly chaotic situation. (Not that US
capitalism’s dominance served the interests of
workers anywhere, either.)</span></p>
<p align="left"> <b style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">National Struggles</b></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">“Ukraine” means border land in the
Ukrainian language, and that is exactly what it
is. As such a land, and lacking major barriers
such as high mountains surrounding it, Ukraine was
a target for invasion after invasion. This
includes both the invasion of the “Golden Horde”
of the Mongols, invasion by the Ottoman Empire, of
the German Nazis, and on and on. One particular
part of the present day Ukraine – Crimea – was
especially the object of such invasions. Until
they were forcibly uprooted and driven to
Uzbekistan by Stalin (a move in which some 40%
died), Crimea was settled predominantly by the
Tatars. But just a review of the ethnic origins of
this group reveals a lot. The Tatars are divided
into various sub-ethnic groups. They speak Crimean
Tatar, Russian or Turkish, depending on their
locale. The Crimean Tatars are composed of Greeks,
Armenians, Italians and Ottoman Turks <span
style="COLOR: #000000;">on the southern coast,
Goths on the central mountains, and Kipchaks and
Cumans of the steppe and forming of the Crimean
Tatar ethnic group. Wars arising from all the
regional rivalries, such as that between Tsarist
Russia and the Ottoman Empire, were fought on
Crimean soil. </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">(In turn, the Tatars themselves
carried out raids on Russia and Ukraine in an
earlier period in which they captured thousands
to sell as slaves to the Ottomans.)</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In
“normal” times – that is, times of relative
stability – this history of war, invasion,
forced resettlement could be somewhat pushed
into the background. But let a new crisis arise,
and all the old ethnic tensions will be used by
nationalist and right wing forces. Or to put it
another way: These tensions will be exacerbated
if there is no mass and independent working
class movement to resolve them.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This
is exactly what is happening now.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><b>Hitler
and Stalin</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">Another
aspect of this history stems from the </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">roles</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"> of both the Nazis as
well as the crimes of Stalin and his regime.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">The
Russian Revolution swept into Eastern Europe,
including into Ukraine, but then it was totally
corrupted by the bureaucracy that seized power
in the Soviet Union with Stalin at its head. </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">The unstable position of
this bureaucracy, with Stalin at its head, was
shown by the purges and also by the attacks on
different national minorities. In order to</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"> ensure that no
opposition movement could develop anywhere he
brutally oppressed almost all ethnic groups
within the Soviet Union. Part of this oppression
was the forced relocation of such ethnic groups
as the Tatars, as mentioned above. Then there
was the brutal crack down on the peasantry,
including the forced collectivization. This hit
the Ukrainian peasantry extremely hard, and
thousands literally starved to death as a
result. The consequence was that when the Nazis
invaded Ukraine, some Ukrainians actually
welcomed them. That most soon found out that the
Nazis were just the opposite of their saviors is
another story. </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">Also factored into this was the
historic anti-Semitism that was so common
especially in Eastern Europe at that time.</span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/peasant-starvation.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1004" alt="peasant
starvation"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.3&filename=peasant-starvation.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><em>Russian
peasants starved to death under Stalin</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><b>Crimean
Tatars</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">The
upshot was the development of pro Nazi forces in
Ukraine </span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">as
well as in Crimea, where a Tatar legion of the
Nazi forces was built</span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">. </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">After the defeat of the Nazis, Stalin
used the latter as an excuse for the forced
resettlement of the Crimean Tatars. </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">In the 1950s, then
Soviet Premier Khruschev carried out a program
of “deStalinization”. While maintaining
bureaucratic control over every aspect of li</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">f</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">e, he made a pretense of
eliminating the worst aspects of Stalin’s rule.
As part of this, he made Crimea part of “the”
Ukraine at that time. (Perhaps this was done
also to make it more difficult for the Tatars to
return there.) However, it was not until 1991,
with the collapse of the Soviet Union, that the
Tatars returned to their ancestral homeland from
Uzbekistan. </span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">I</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">magine the meaning of
this: Generation after generation of Tatars had
grown up and lived outside of Crimea. They had
no direct personal experience, yet the history,
the call for a return to their homeland lived on
and as soon as the opportunity arose they took
advantage of it. (In some ways, this calls to
mind the present situation of the Palestinian
diaspora.)</span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/crimean-tatars.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1002" alt="Crimean Tatars"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.4&filename=crimean-tatars.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><em>Crimean
Tatars: For generations they maintained their
traditions</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">What
did they find upon their return?</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">Their
former homes and land was occupied by ethnic
Russians, who now were the overwhelming majority
(some 75%). Despite new laws, they found it near
impossible to get land on which to build new
homes or mosques to carry out their traditional
religion. They were a discriminated-against
minority in their own home. In the absence of a
real workers’ struggle to unite all workers and
peasants, this also created distrust among the
ethnic Russians.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><b>Collapse
of Stalinism: Aftermath</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">With
the collapse of Stalinism, US capitalism became
dominant </span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">globally
</span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">and with it
the rise of the neo liberals and the propaganda
of the “free” market. This meant wave after wave
of attacks on any government intervention into
the economy such as price supports for basic
necessities, government social welfare programs,
and privatization. All of this was accompanied
by massive corruption, which included the rise
of the “oligarchs” not only in Russia but also
in Ukraine.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">So
it was that the early years of the 21</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><sup>st</sup></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"> century saw the rise of
massive wealth of the few amidst the increasing
poverty of the many in Ukraine. (A story that
might sound familiar to workers in the United
States, for that matter!) </span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">According
to </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0305/A-look-at-Ukraine-s-economic-hole">one
report</a><span style="COLOR: #000000;">, </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><i>“</i></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><i>The Ukrainian hryvnia
has lost 25 percent of its value against the
dollar since mid-January (the currency is
worth about 1/5th of what it was when it was
issued in 1996).”</i></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"> According to </span><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/destitute-country-can-ukraine-s-201435155043404522.html">al
Jazeera</a><span style="COLOR: #000000;">, </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><i>“As of December 2013
the external debt of Ukraine skyrocketed to
$149 bn.,</i></span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;"><i> which makes more than 77 percent
of country’s GDP. About </i></span><span
style="COLOR: #f88b0b;"><i><b>$65bn short-term
debt</b></i></span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;"><i> can’t be paid at the moment, while
the country’s gold and foreign currency
reserves are estimated to have shrunk to $15
bn.”</i></span><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><i> </i></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">This has meant severe
inflation in Ukraine.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><b>Western
Ukraine</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">Predominantly
ethnic Ukrainian (as opposed to ethnic Russian)
western Ukraine is also more rural than is
Eastern Ukraine, which also has closer economic
ties to Russia. Partly due to this, there was an
opening for demagic propaganda in western
Ukraine to look towards the European Union (EU)
for salvation. The gaze to the EU was directed
at Germany, </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">instead of </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">to the crisis ridden Greece or Spain.
Given all these factors, when the then regime of
Yanukovich changed courses and moved towards
Russia instead of the EU, all the tensions broke
out in the open in the form of protests against
this tilt and in favor of tilting towards the
EU.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">Thus
</span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">arose </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">the now famous </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">Euro </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;">Maidan occupation.
Prominent among the occupiers has been the neo
Nazi forces of Svoboda as well as other fascists
and semi fascists. To its eternal disgrace,
representatives of US capitalism have either
ignored this or openly encouraged it, such as
when </span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">Republican
</span><span style="COLOR: #000000;">US Senator
John McCain </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">and Democratic US Senator Chris Murphy</span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"> publicly posed with
Svoboda’s leader </span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;">Tyahnybok in December of 2013.</span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/mccain-tahnybok.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1003" alt="McCain Tahnybok"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.5&filename=mccain-tahnybok.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><em>John
McCain with Tahnybok</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">An
extremely interesting interview<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote1sym"
name="sdfootnote1anc"><sup>1</sup></a> with a
Ukrainian syndicalist goes into some detail
about the occupation. One aspect has been a
split among the ruling elite, the oligarchs. </span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><i>“Since 2010, Viktor
Yanukovych, who had initially been just a
puppet of powerful oligarchs, has become an
ambitious businessman himself. His elder son
has accumulated vast powers; “The Family”
occupied important positions in the
government, monopolized control over capital
flows, and started fighting with Rinat
Akhmetov, Dmitry Firtash and other oligarchs
who had been their sponsors previously.
Naturally, the traditional oligarchic clans
didn’t like this, so the current protest has
also an elite dimension.”</i></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">On
the composition of the protests, he says: </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>“</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Initially… the
protesters were mainly students and urban ‘</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>middle classes</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>‘</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>: petite
bourgeoisie, bohemian circles, office workers.
Right now, the class composition of the
protests has definitely shifted to the more
universal one. I’m not sure about the exact
proportions but it’s doubtless that the
protest has become more “proletarian” –
although the share of workers is still low,
and when they are present, they are there as
“Ukrainians” or “citizens” but not as
“workers”. Also, in Kyiv per se life goes on
as usual, nobody is on strike etc. Generally,
the protest has a cross-class nature: it
includes unemployed people as well as the CEO
of Microsoft Ukraine.</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>”</i></span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/svoboda.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1007" alt="Svoboda"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.6&filename=svoboda.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><em>Far
right neo fascists in Kiev</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;">As
numerous reports including this one make clear,
there is massive confusion at best within this
movement. The role of the neo-fascists adds to
this confusion. There are numerous reports of
trade unionists and leftists being beaten up by
these far right forces. Since the fall of
Yevtushenko, there have been fire bombings of
Synagogues. And one of the first steps taken by
the new government was to attempt to revoke the
law which gave rights to speakers of all
languages. (This attempt was later abandoned.)</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Pervasive
in the new government are neo fascists. This
includes not only members of parliament but also
</span></span><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">the
</span></span><span style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">secretary
of the Ukrainian National Security and Defen</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">s</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">e Council is Andriy
Parubiy. He is a leader of the “National Social
Party”, and if that name sounds suspiciously
like the Nazi “National Socialist Party” it is
no accident. He is a neo fascist. “</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Overseeing the
armed forces alongside Parubiy as the Deputy
Secretary of National Security is </i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #094674;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Dmytro Yarosh</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>, the leader of
the Right Sector – a group of hardline
nationalist streetfighters, who </i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #094674;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>previously boasted</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i> they were ready
for armed struggle to free Ukraine.”<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote2sym"
name="sdfootnote2anc"><sup>2</sup></a></i></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
appointment of Deputy Prime Minister, </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">Oleksandr Sych, will
not be a great step forward for women. ‘</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>Sych, 49, is a
member of the far-right nationalist Svoboda
(Freedom) party. He is an anti-abortion
activist and once publicly suggested that
women should “lead the kind of lifestyle to
avoid the risk of rape, including refraining
from drinking alcohol and being in
controversial company”. </i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">‘<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote3sym"
name="sdfootnote3anc"><sup>3</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #1d1d1d;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">At
the top of this cast of criminals stands newly
appointed Prime Minister </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
Yatsenyuk is a former central banker and has
close ties with Western finance capital. Given
US President Obama’s call on Ukraine to observe
its “foreign commitments”, meaning paying off
its foreign debts on time, as well as his call
for economic “reform”, meaning attacking the
Ukrainian working class, we know what to expect
from him.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><b>Russian
Forces Invade</b></span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/russian-troops-ukraine.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-medium wp-image-1006" alt="Russian troops
Ukraine"
src="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/russian-troops-ukraine.jpeg?w=300&h=150"
height="150" width="300"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><em>Russian
troops in Crimea</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #000000;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In
chaotic situation in which all the old ethnic
tensions </span></span><span style="COLOR:
#000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">were brought to</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #000000;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"> the fore, it is
inevitable that the ethnic Russians would feel
threatened. Given their majority status in
Crimea, and given the fact that Crimea has
historically been passed back and forth between
greater nations like a gift at a birthday party,
it was also inevitable that the ethnic Russians
in Crimea would tend to rise up against the new,
right-wing nationalist regime dominated not only
by Ukranian nationalism, but by representatives
of world capitalism. </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">On the other hand,
given their brutal treatment at the hands of
Stalin, and their rivalry with the ethnic
Russians in Crimea at present, and in the
background of an independent movement of the
working class itself, it was inevitable that the
ethnic Tatars in Crimea would tend to side with
the new Ukrainian regime in Western Ukraine.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Then
there is the role of the Putin regime in Russia.
Putin bases himself in part on Russian
nationalism. Also, he sees the drive to spread
the influence of Western – especially Western
European capitalism – as a threat to Russian
capitalism. </span></span><span style="COLOR:
#262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">Finally there was the potential
threat to the Russian naval bases in Crimea.</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"> Therefore, for both
domestic as well as international reasons, he
could not stand idly by;</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"> h</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">e was forced to send
his troops into Crimea. </span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
invasion of Russian troops has been accompanied
by the entry of the “Night Wolves” thug Russian
motorcycle gang into Crimea as well as of the
nationalist bigot Vladimir Zhironovsky. </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">This will not work
out to defend the rights of ethnic Russians and
especially not to defend the rights of the
working class, neither in Crimea nor in Ukraine
as a whole</span></span><span style="COLOR:
#262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New
Roman', serif;">. It will also boost these right
wing nationalist forces within Russia. In fact,
just days after the invasion a group of anti-war
protesters in Moscow were all arrested by the
police there.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>US
Capitalism</b></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
representatives of US capitalism wailed and
gnashed their teeth. Even before the invasion,
Niall Ferguson wrote a column in the Wall Street
Journal in which he complained: </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>‘</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>The president
said: “There will be consequences if people
step over the line.” </i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>No one took that
warning seriously—Ukrainian government snipers
kept on killing people in Independence Square
regardless. The world remembers the red line
that Mr. Obama once drew over the use of
chemical weapons in Syria . . . and then
ignored once the line had been crossed.’<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote4sym"
name="sdfootnote4anc"><sup>4</sup></a> </i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;">Peggy Noonan, regular
columnist for the WSJ wrote that Obama’s stance
regarding Ukraine “</span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>doesn’t look
peaceable, it looks weak”<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote5sym"
name="sdfootnote5anc"><sup>5</sup></a></i></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Their
problem is not that Obama’s policy “looks” like
it stems from weakness, it </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>does</i></span></span><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"> stem from weakness!
After all, even the normally rabid editors of
the WSJ explain that there is little that Obama
can do other than call for some sort of
sanctions. But even they admit that the close
ties between Western European and the Russian
economies are a limiting factor. First and
foremost is the dependence of Germany for its
supply of natural gas on the Russian gas
pipelines. So any serious economic sanctions
would be a non-starter out of the gate. </span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jim
DeMint, president of the neo-conservative
Heritage Foundation summed it up. He wrote: </span></span><span
style="COLOR: #434343;"><span style="FONT-FAMILY:
'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>“Weak statements,
history has proven, only invite aggression.
What our friends, and also our foes, need to
hear is a clarion call in support of liberty
and self-determination, and the threat of
punitive sanctions against those who
transgress those principles. The Ukrainians
who rose to demand freedom need to be
comforted by our words and intentions, and the
thugs in the Kremlin need to fear them.</i></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #434343;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i><span
style="COLOR: #262626;">“Going forward,
President Obama must understand that his
‘reset’ with Russia has been a disastrous
failure and that his promises to Putin of
post-election ‘flexibility’ have backfired.
He must also rethink his entire policy of
deserting our friends and cozying up to our
enemies, as well as plans to neuter our
military might. But now, what we need is
clarity and global leadership.”<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote6sym"
name="sdfootnote6anc"><sup>6</sup></a> </span></i><span
style="COLOR: #262626;">Words and more words.
Even the neo-conservatives are at a loss to
advocate any clear action.</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
reason is clear: It’s simply that the tops of US
capitalism put a compromiser and advocate of
“diplomacy” into the White House because they
have come to recognize that they are in a
weakened position globally. Not that they aren’t
dangerous. With a military possessing numerous
weapons of mass destruction and whose total size
is almost as large as the combined militaries of
the entire rest of the world, US capitalism
poses a deadly threat.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #434343;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="COLOR: #262626;">But what can they do
in this situation? Send troops to Ukraine?
Nobody is advocating that. For one thing,
Russia is a nuclear power. (This,
incidentally, is an incentive for the Iranian
regime to develop a nuclear weapon. Not that
the spread of nuclear weapons is not a deadly
danger to life on the planet, but the
increased international tensions and increased
desperation of US capitalism are driving
different capitalist regimes in that
direction.) And even if the risk of nuclear
war weren’t present, US capitalism implicitly
accepts the “sphere of influence” of Russian
capitalism, just as it insists on its own
similar sphere on the American continent.
(Although even that is weakening.)</span></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #434343;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="COLOR: #262626;"><b>Perspectives</b></span></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #434343;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span
style="COLOR: #262626;">Without having a
clearer view of the internal forces within
Ukraine, especially within various sectors of
the Ukrainian working class, it is foolhardy
to try to be anywhere near definitive about
the future in Ukraine. But one thing is most
likely: That the new regime in Ukraine will
try to carry out the demands of Western
capitalism and cut social services, privatize,
etc. It seems unlikely that Russian troops
will go beyond Crimea, but if new measures are
carried out against ethnic Russians in Western
Ukraine Putin may feel forced to send them. </span></span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In
addition, there are the perspectives for the
workers’ movement in other parts of Eastern as
well as Western Europe. Whenever an independent
movement of the working class develops in these
regions, it is certain to have an effect on
Ukrainian workers. But the question is “when”.</span></span></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">We
do not know to what extent the Ukrainian working
class was involved in the struggle, with their
own class interests in mind, but it seems almost
impossible that this did not happen at all. But
the outcome at this point has been a new regime
that prominently includes the most vicious right
wing forces. This outcome is not isolated: In
Egypt, millions of workers and youth rose up to
oust Mubarak. And what was the result? First the
reactionary Islamic fundamentalists rode into
power, and then they were ousted by the equally
reactionary Egyptian military. Then there is the
situation in Syria, which started as a genuine
revolution from below. This even included a
tendency to form workers’ councils<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote7sym"
name="sdfootnote7anc"><sup>7</sup></a> . This
revolt from below was then overwhelmed by the
forces of reaction. And Chinese society appears
to be bursting at the seams with struggle, but
now we have this horrific terrorist attack
evidently by nationalist Uighur forces.
According to one article, this attack is having
an effect on the mood in China similar to what
9/11 had here in the United States.<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.com/2014/03/07/ukraine-the-sins-of-the-fathers-and-beyond/#sdfootnote8sym"
name="sdfootnote8anc"><sup>8</sup></a></span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/images1.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="size-full
wp-image-1008 aligncenter" alt="images"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.8&filename=images1.jpeg?w=640"></a><em>one
of the wounded in the Uighur nationalist terrorist
attack in China</em></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This
is only one side of the coin. In Egypt, for
instance, there is still wave after wave of
strikes. And the powerful Chinese working class
still has not fully spoken. But these defeats,
however temporary and partial, give a hint of
the serious danger that human society faces. To
this must be added the environmental disaster
that looms.</span></span></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://oaklandsocialist.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/egypt-strike.jpeg"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" class="alignnone
size-full wp-image-1009" alt="egypt strike"
src="mailbox:///C:/Users/Astrid/AppData/Roaming/Thunderbird/Profiles/plx0c8to.default/Mail/Local%20Folders/Inbox?number=134385746&header=quotebody&part=1.9&filename=egypt-strike.jpeg?w=640"></a></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center;" align="left"><i>Egyptian
textile workers on strike</i></p>
<p align="left"><span style="COLOR: #262626;"><span
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', serif;">The
working class is far from down for the count. It
will rise from Ukraine to Syria to China. But
the conditions do not allow for indefinite time.
We must do all we can to draw the lessons and
build a mass, independent and international
workers movement. The alternative is too
horrible to contemplate.</span></span></p>
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